Plot Synopsis

Hi-5 is a children's television show produced in Australia and has been showing on the Nine Network since January 1999. The show is hosted by a group of five, mid-twenties presenters; Charli, Kelli, Kathleen, Nathan & Tim. The television show consists of songs, performed either by the group or by individual members, stories, animation, on location visits such as parties, puzzles and some activity segments. Also featured are other regular characters such as Chatterbox (a puppet) and Jub Jub, a stuffed toy. This disc actually features Chatterbox's birthday party.

This particular DVD features all of the above in 18 segments which run for approximately 50 minutes. This program was previously released on video in 2002. This disc has the same format as the other 3 Hi-5 DVDs I have reviewed, excepting that this one's theme is celebrations, from birthdays to Christmas and many more. There are (as usual) three songs performed by the entire group. This time they are Celebrate, Hand in Hand & Inside My Heart.

The program is light, friendly, colourful and moves quickly from topic to topic to avoid losing its audience. My test audience (my 18 month old son) was happily bopping along and seemed to be enjoying himself although there was nothing on this disc that really got his attention like there has been on other ones. The studio audience certainly seemed to be enjoying it.

From my adult perspective, I find this show harder to watch than other kids shows.

Basically, if you have other DVDs by Hi-5, you know the format and this one will not let the kids down.

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is very good. It seems to me that the video quality here is not quite as good as that on the newly produced discs (i.e. they are not reissues of videos like this one).

The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise.

The colour was very good throughout with all colours being vibrant and well saturated, with only the merest hint of colour bleeding.

There was some minor aliasing and some jagged edges, especially noticeable during the end credits and on costumes.

There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired which were clear, easy to read and exact to the spoken word.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness

Shadow Detail

Colour

Grain/Pixelization

Film-To-Video Artefacts

Film Artefacts

Overall

Audio

The audio quality is good, but very front and centre focussed.

This DVD contains only one audio option, a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 320 Kb/s.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.

There were no problems with audio sync, although some songs were fairly obviously lip synched.

The music by Chris Harriott is very catchy and the kids love it.

The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue

Audio Sync

Clicks/Pops/Dropouts

Surround Channel Use

Subwoofer

Overall

Extras

Menu

The menu includes the ability to repeat the program forever, choose specific songs or stories or choose the songs sung by particular performers. Each performer's songs can also be repeated forever. To my mind the menu system is a bit fiddly for the kids to use themselves even though they are described as 'child friendly' on the box, although nothing surprises me with what kids can do any more.

Trailers

Advertisements (including the stores where you can buy them) are included for approximately 10 other Hi-5 titles.

Karaoke

This option allows for the three main songs from the program to be played (on endless repeat if desired) with or without the singing and with the lyrics printed on the screen for singing along with.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.